War Museum

[Spritzup]

The new war museum has opened in Ottawa and there has been a fair bit of controversy over it. The main reason is the inclusion of some of Canada's lesser moments (the torture of prisoners in Somalia comes to mind). Do you think this is appropriate?

[TheKwas]

Why wouldn't it be appropriate? Anything less than the truth would inappropriate.

[Sparq]

Sure. Less heroes, more...well, truth. War is ugly.

[juanpe]

I agree: one way to show attrocities and to keep people's memories of what to not try to do in the future

[ok_go_570]

you have to have the good and the bad. It would be a shame if the museum tried to gloss over some of the lesser moments in our military history.

[Dan #2]

If you're embarrassed of your past, you have progressed. Progression is (generally, and definitely in this case) good.

 

Heroes are good, truth is better.

[Moonlight_Graham]

yeah, i agree it should be included. We already glorify war far too much.

 

I live in Ottawa so i hope to go visit this museum sometime soon. I heard its fantastic.

[juanpe]

If you're embarrassed of your past, you have progressed. Progression is (generally, and definitely in this case) good.

 

Heroes are good, truth is better.

really liked the way you explained it... and I like that sentence "hereos are good, truth is better"

[Dan #2]

If you're embarrassed of your past, you have progressed. Progression is (generally, and definitely in this case) good.

 

Heroes are good, truth is better.

really liked the way you explained it... and I like that sentence "hereos are good, truth is better"

Thank you very much ;)

[Spritzup]

I guess it's just a fine line to walk, especially when those 'heroes' are still living.

[SHARPE]

i was planning to go check it out today, but im pretty damned sick. im really eager to go, and everytime i plan so; shit happens.

 

I found the older one to be extremely fascinating, i can only imagine what this one can bring. I know i can read about articles of what people have seen, and what it can offer. but id rather go in and be blown away. no pun intended.

[ecnarf]

We should be including stuff in there. In Japanese war museums, they don't even acknowledge the Rape of Nanking. I don't want Canada to become revisionist in its history.

[borntohula]

If you're embarrassed of your past, you have progressed. Progression is (generally, and definitely in this case) good.

 

Heroes are good, truth is better.

unless theres no such thing as progression.

[Bizud]

So we're just like we were a hundred years ago, when women couldn't vote, homosexuality was illegal, you could be sent off to fight and die in a war you didn't believe in, etcetera...

[HoboFactory]

Well the being sent off to a war you don't believe in part still happens.

[saturnine]

it's a museum.. it doesn't have to be one-sided. i wonder if german museums acknowledge the holocaust

[Sparq]

That's the thing...you don't want to universally vilify your own soldiers for their part in war, either. You also don't want to glorify whatever atrocities may have been comitted...as someone said, it's a fine line.

[ecnarf]

it's a museum.. it doesn't have to be one-sided. i wonder if german museums acknowledge the holocaust

They do, and Germany as a whole accepts responsibility for the Holocaust. In fact, just recently, Germany gave something like 9 million euros for home care for survivors of the holocaust.

 

I'd like to see the U.S. do the same thing for victims of hiroshima and nagasaki.

[Bizud]

Or the people of Vietnam, Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and so on.

[juanpe]

and the people of South American -including the ones you mention- and the people of Iraq, and the people in Africa...

 

at least Germans acknowledge the mistake of having someone like Hitler in their country, and as ecnarf says "Germany as a whole accepts responsibility for the Holocaust" (his words)

[SHARPE]

the museum is incredible. i went there last friday with a friend, and we were blown away.

[juanpe]

i guess it has a webpage to see some images or read about its contents... does anybody know?

[Sparq]

http://www.warmuseum.ca

 

Gallery 1

Edited June 7, 2005 by Sparq

[garsk]

my brother and i went to the new war museum this past setember, and well, we werent really impressed. My basic idea of the place, was that they took all the old stuff out of the old museum on sussex dr. and put in a new building. it was pretty much the same thing. my brother on the other hand, have been in france for the past year working at the juno beach center for WWII and Vimy Ridge for WWI, didnt like it either, he found that a lot of the information jumped around a lot, and would go into great detail about usless stuff. Also he found historical problems with some the vimy ridge and juno beach landing. as for the stuff about rwanda and somalia... well there were two painting of it. and that was pretty much it. never went into detail about the operations, just two paintings.

 

somethings that would great of the museum would be more history after 1945 ie korea, there are a lot of good stories about canadian's doing great things over there. more about the Newfoundlanders during WWI sure they were there own country, but still, they are a part of us now, and supplying a lot of our troops now. also more about the dangers of PeaceKeeping, ie how canadian troops fought the largest battle in canadain history in the former Yugoslavia in the early 90's only to have the federal government keep it secret from the public for 10 years.

[supercanuk]

There also having a special program on war propaganda there this month.